Dorval Brunelle

Transnacionalização das práticas sindicais: quadro teórico-analítico

Economic integration, at both global and regional levels, calls for the redefinition and the reorientation of past practices on the part of social actors in general, and on the part of the trade union movement in particular. If States, international organizations and transnational corporations represent the main vectors of economic integration, other social forces do make themselves heard in new and original ways. The paper sets up a theoretical framework in order to understand and analyze these initiatives. After having briefly reviewed contributions by Leslie Sklair and Douglass C. North on this matter, the authors turn towards two issues: first, the international framework set up after World War II and past practices, second, the present terms of globalization as they affect the transnationalization of trade unions practices. This historical and theoretical presentation is illustrated with references to trade unions initiatives within the Americas, both in the North and in the South, as they have evolved in the wake of NAFTA, MERCOSUR and the FTAA.

Comunidades atlánticas: asimetrías y convergencias

El articulo explora la idea de que estamos asistiendo a la aparicion de una serie de iniciativas en ambos lados del Atlantico, tanto en el Norte como en el Sur, y que estas comunidades atlanticas podrian llegar a converger hacia la formacion de una Comunidad Atlantica de pleno derecho; un objetivo muy distinto en alcance y profundidad al planteado bajo el mismo nombre tras la Segunda Guerra Mundial, el cual todavia perdura a dia de hoy. La presentacion aborda ambos lados de la cuestion. En primer lugar, ?que explicaciones pueden justificar la longevidad y exclusividad de la Comunidad Atlantica existente? En segundo lugar, ?de donde proceden las nuevas iniciativas, y como pueden relacionarse para propiciar la emergencia de una Comunidad Atlantica ampliada e inclusiva? En este sentido, el enfoque general es sin lugar a dudas constructivista.

Civil Society Organizations against Free Trade Agreements in North America

The analysis of civil society mobilization against free trade agreements (FTAs) in North America raises a number of empirical and theoretical concerns for two basic reasons. First, because the convergence of nationally based coalitions to oppose the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement (CUSFTA) and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) failed dismally on both occasions, a result which is not easy to reconcile with the prevailing optimistic view about the relevance of social mobilization. And secondly, because the emergence of armed struggle in Mexico, led by the Ejercito Zapatista de Liberation Nacional (EZLN — Zapatista Army of National Liberation),2 the day the agreement came into force, 1 January 1994, deeply affected the relevance and legitimacy of any further reformist opposition to NAFTA. In turn, this could explain the swiftness with which North American coalitions against NAFTA shifted their mobilizing capacity to embark on an anti-Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) campaign, and the consequent disinterest toward any further mobilization against NAFTA.

New Issues on the NAFTA Front

Under review here is a single-author work and four collections comprising no less than 48 contributions by some 61 authors, not counting commentators and panel discussants. This richness is but a small indication of the unflagging interest the North American Free Trade Agreement (nafta) has spawned among academics, researchers, and analysts. If nothing else, nafta has certainly proven that interactive and integrative forces do carry with them interesting spill-over effects on the research agendas of universities and foundations, thereby con-